from: Interactive Fiction Archive
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/magnetic-scrolls/hints/solutions/



The Pawn (Magnetic Scrolls) Solution.

  Part 1

 You wake up with a bump on your noggin, wearing some odd clothes and a
strange wristband. What to do. Well, first, LOOK AT THE CLOTHES. Yep,
that plant design sure smacks of something potty. LOOK IN THE POCKET.
There's a key in there (a metal key, as it turns out).

 Time to do some exploring of this strange new land. Go east. Whoops!
What's this? You enter the grassy wilderness and Kronos, the magician,
appears zooming up to you on some sort of stone platform (a Kerovnian
hovercraft?). SAY TO KRONOS, "GREETINGS."
 Kronos will reply that he needs someone to take a note to King Eric.
TAKE THE NOTE. Then, be sure to ASK KRONOS ABOUT THE WRISTBAND. The
magician will promise to remove your wristband if you perform a service.
You must kill a man on a legless horse and bring his dead body to
Kronos' room in the northernmost mountain. Kronos offers you a chest
which will help in this task. TAKE THE CHEST, but do not open it.
 You can LOOK AT THE NOTE and/or THE CHEST if you want, but it's not
necessary. Go east twice. You will be in the palace gardens. LOOK UNDER
THE MAT. Another key. GET THE KEY. (This one is a wooden key.) Also,
LOOK IN THE FOUNTAIN and GET THE CHIT (it's an I.O.U from Honest John
for 1 Ferg). Now go southwest.

 You're at the shed. UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE WOODEN KEY. Southwest.
Once inside, you will see three things. GET two of them -- the RAKE and
the HOE. (The wheelbarrow is a red herring. Forget it.) Then LOOK AT THE
WORKBENCH. You spy a trowel. GET THE TROWEL. Nope, you're not done yet.
LOOK UNDER THE WORKBENCH. You find a pot. GET THE POT. LOOK AT THE POT.
Hmmmm, the pot contains a plant which closely resembles the plant on
your shirt. (Lotsa pot references in case you're missing it!) Okay,
you're finished in the shed so go northeast, then east to the gatehouse.
 The guards at the gatehouse won't let you pass until you SHOW THE NOTE
TO THE GUARDS. Then, you are allowed in to see King Eric, who is
infuriated by Kronos' note. He rewards you for delivering it by having
you kicked out of his palace. So much for good deeds. Oh, well, no great
harm done except to your dignity, and you'll suffer plenty more
indignities in this game. Go west three times and south. Then, go west
twice to the path. Go north five times on the path. You will come to a
very large boulder. (Before we go on, remember, any time you wish to
know the directions you can move in THE PAWN, simply type EXITS, and
you'll be told.)

 Hmmm, what to do with this humungous boulder? Well, for the moment, you
can forget it. Head west, then northwest to the top of the
heather-covered hill. There's a hut here. GO IN THE HUT. My word,
there's a Guru here, and he laughs uproariously at your wristband. What
could be so funny about that? No matter, he won't stop laughing until
you can somehow hide the thing. So TAKE OFF THE SHIRT. COVER THE
WRISTBAND WITH THE SHIRT. Ah, that's better. At least the Guru stops
laughing long enough to give you a chore to perform. He empties his
bowl, gives it to you and instructs you to bring it back full of the
essential nourishment of life. (Doesn't want much, does he?) Well, no
ducking the assignment; but before you leave the hut, GET THE RICE you
are informed is there.
 Now it's time to retrace your steps to the foothills where you last
left the large boulder. Once you reach the durned thing, you can UNCOVER
THE WRISTBAND. Then, TIE THE RAKE AND HOE TOGETHER WITH THE SHIRT. It
isn't very plausible, but you now have just the implement with which to
move the boulder.
 Bet you would never think of the next entry: LEVER THE BOULDER WITH THE
RAKE AND THE HOE. (Yes sir,it's a beaut, all right!) Well, it works, and
the boulder goes bounding down the mountainside out of harm's way. Now
you can proceed northwest up the narrow track. (You might want to pause
before doing so to PUT ON YOUR SHIRT. It gets chilly up in those
mountains.) Of course you have to UNTIE THE SHIRT (from the rake and
hoe) before you can wear it.

 Oh, dear, just when you thought you were on your way, you no sooner get
by the boulder than your path is blocked by a rockfall. No problem.
CLIMB OVER THE ROCKS. (See? Sometimes the solutions are right there as
plain as the nose on your face, no gimmicks, no tricks.)
 Along about now the adventurer should appear, riding on a horse. Aha!
The horse has no legs. This must be the guy Kronos wants you to knock
off. GIVE THE CHEST TO THE ADVENTURER. No sooner said than the
adventurer opens the chest and a lethal blast wafts into his kisser and
kills him dead. GET THE ADVENTURER and PUT THE ADVENTURER ON THE HORSE.
Now it's time for you to GET ON THE HORSE yourself. (This nag has a
sense of humor, as you will see.) More important, for whatever reason he
turns out to be a magical source of light. And you must have him with
you when you enter dark places, or, find another light source. (Yep,
you'll have to do that, too. After all, horses, legless or otherwise,
can't go everywhere.)

 Now go northwest and up to the plateau. From here you can see an ice
tower off to the southwest. Time for that later. You will be coming
back. (The only reason I stuck this UP move in is just in case you need
an extra move or two to meet the adventurer. In other words, he doesn't
always appear at the same place I've indicated. But don't fret; he will
be along.)
 Anyway, go back the way you came (i.e., DOWN). There's a cavemouth to
the east. Go east twice. (By the way, without the horse, you wouldn't be
able to see your hand in front of your face. Good thing you have your
new friend along.)
 Go east one more time (into the cavern), then down. You will find
yourself in a small cave. Go east into the corridor. You'll find a REM
statement here. To read it, GET OFF THE HORSE (don't worry, he'll wait.
And, don't forget, there will be other times later when you're riding
the horse when you can't do things unless you dismount). Okay, READ THE
REM STATEMENT. (You can skip it if you prefer. I only stuck it in here
to give you the tip about dismounting.)
 After the REM statement, get back on the horse and ride east to the
Lava River. You will see a vertical shaft which you decide bears
investigating. GET OFF THE HORSE and go up. Foiled again! You are told
you must drop everything to go up. Don't do it. Something might break.
Instead PUT ALL (items in your inventory, which should include the pot,
hoe, trowel, rake, bowl, rice and chit) ON THE HORSE. Now you can go up,
and up again.

 You are told that the primary function of the shaft is probably to
supply air to the fires of hell, rather than allowing mortals pot-holing
practice. Hmmmm. Well, at its apex you are in a chamber by the river. It
looks like the wall keeping out the river is very fragile. Nothing to do
but to BREAK THE WALL. The wall breaks easily and the water rushes in,
sweeping you with it back down the shaft. You'll wind up in the dark, so
go east, back to the Lava River, and there you find your horse (and
light) calmly waiting for you. Go north.
 Now, then, the reason you broke the wall was to let the river in. The
result of this action was to cool and solidify the Lava River so you
could move north. Otherwise, you would have been incinerated.
 On the north bank of the Lava River you see a pale blue pedestal. Also,
in the northeast wall is an exit with a notice above it. If you go
northeast, you will be in an endless maze. (The notice, by the way,
which you have to dismount to read, says: "Warning: This maze is totally
irrelevant to the adventure.") Don't tear your hair if you stumble into
the maze by mistake. If you read the notice, you shouldn't make such a
dumb move; but if you do, simply type EXIT MAZE and you'll be out again.
Now wasn't that easy?

 What you're really after is that pedestal. So (presuming you've
dismounted) type, LIFT THE PEDESTAL. Just as you suspected, there's a
niche here. LOOK IN THE NICHE. Oho! Another key, this one a blue key.
GET THE BLUE KEY. Now GET ON THE HORSE and retrace your steps back out
of the caves. (Go south, west twice, up, west three more times and
you'll be outside on the path. Now it's time to go up to that plateau
from whence you spied the ice tower. (You're not finished with the
caves, by the way, nor with the ice tower; but they can wait until
later.)
 Once you are on the plateau, dismount and GET THE BOWL (remember, you
left it on the horse with all your other stuff). Once you have it, PUT
SNOW IN THE BOWL. (Yes sir, that'll make the essential nourishment of
life, all right!) Now go down three times until you reach the foothills.
Go south, then west and northwest back up to the hill to the Guru's hut.
GO IN THE HUT and GIVE THE BOWL TO THE GURU. (Betcha forgot to get off
the horse first!) He thanks you and gives you a pretty obvious clue,
something about a light in the forest helping you and the trees.

  THE PAWN
  Part 2

 EXIT the hut and get on your horse. Go south through rolling hills,
south through the rank forest, and south again until you come to a
forest clearing. Here you find a tree stump. LOOK AT THE STUMP. The
stump is gnarled and rotten. It contains a pouch. GET THE POUCH. (Note:
If you had found this place before satisfying the Guru, you would not
have found the pouch. Just an empty and not terribly useful old stump.)
OPEN THE POUCH. LOOK IN THE POUCH. You are told the pouch contains a
blue, a green and a red. (Presumably, these are either jewels or stones,
we are not told. The main thing they are is your new handy-dandy
transportable source of light. Also, as you will see, the red has still
another use, as does the pouch.) But we dally. It's time to GET ON THE
HORSE.
 At this point you may want to retrace your steps and go back to where
you saw the ice tower. The exact sequence doesn't matter in THE PAWN,
but it's where I chose to do it. So go all the way back north and up to
the plateau where you filled the bowl with snow. From the plateau, go
south and west (still on the plateau). Here you will find an entrance to
the ice tower. Trouble is, there's a big, fat doleful looking snowman
blocking your way. He won't let you pass, so GET OFF THE HORSE.

 MELT THE SNOWMAN WITH THE RED. That did it! Now you can go northeast
into the ice tower. Once inside, go west into the storeroom and get the
spiky boots you find there. PUT ON THE SPIKY BOOTS. Oh, yes, look at the
table. You see a prism so GET THE PRISM. (I never did figure what the
prism was for, but I decided it might come in handy. Never did as I
recall, but maybe you will find a use for it. Remember, THE PAWN has
lots of twists and I know I didn't discover all of them. The only thing
I can guarantee is that you will get all 350 points possible if you
follow this walkthru, prism or no prism.)
 Leave the storeroom by going east. You will see an opening in the west
wall and a slope made of ice spiralling in a helical path up the inside
wall of the ice tower. (That's why you need the spiky boots. If you try
that slope without them, you'll die from the fall.) Go up to the
landing. To the north is a heavy wooden door which, of course, is
locked. What to do?

 Well, you can unlock it. BUT, I don't recommend it. To do so you must
use the blue key. And if you do, the blue key will disappear, never to
be used again. Worst of all, you need to use it elsewhere. The solution
is to SAVE your game at this point; then unlock the door with the blue
key. (Obviously, you will find out what's behind the door and you can
later RESTORE, getting your blue key back nice and safe and sound.)
 Inside you will find sweet Princess Lacey, greasy hair and all. She has
been imprisoned here by Kronos, which is what that note to Eric was all
about. Seems Kronos was looking for a tad of ransom. You may rescue her
and take her back to King Eric for whatever reward he may have in store.
(Recall he wasn't too generous when you brought him that note!) If you
do this, you will give up the 40 points you would have earned if you had
chosen to forget the princess and used your blue key elsewhere. Aren't
you glad you read this walkthru now? Anyway, I chose to abandon the
princess and restored my game outside her door. I recommend it.
 So much for the diversion of the ice tower. Leave it, get back on your
horse and head for the forest. Oh, all right, I'll help. First, you will
find the snowman is rebuilt. That's all right. Melt him again with the
red. Go north, then east and down four times. Now go south five times
and west twice. You come to a very tall tree. Better get off the horse
and climb the tree. Be sure to get the stuff you've left on the horse
(except for the adventurer). You may need it. Now go up.

 Oh, dear, another locked door confronts you at the top of the ancient
tree. UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE WOODEN KEY. Open the door and go east
into the tree. Hmmm, there are some loose floorboards here. The trouble
is it's too dark to move them. First, close the door. Then, MIX RED,
BLUE AND GREEN. Ah! Let there be light! And so there is. You wind up
with a WHITE, and it will be your light source whenever you're away from
your horse. That old Guru wasn't such a bad chap after all.
 Now you can MOVE THE FLOORBOARDS and go down into the tree. Go down
again and you will be in a low ceiling room. Go east into the White
Room. (If you look at the walls, you will be told the stone wall is a
"standard issue Kerovnian dungeon wall, to be found throughout Kerovnia,
keeping adventurers within the substance of the universe.") Go back
west.

 From the Low Ceiling Room go west to the crossroads and southwest to
the door of what appears to be a small abode. OPEN THE DOOR. Go west
into the lounge. You see a hard hat. WEAR THE HARD HAT. You also see a
settee. LOOK AT THE SETTEE. There are some cushions on it. MOVE THE
CUSHIONS. You find a coin. GET THE COIN.
 Go west into the kitchen. LOOK AT THE STOVE. There's a teapot here. GET
THE TEAPOT. You should also LOOK AT THE WORKTOP and GET THE CARROT.
(These two items, like the prism, proved to be utterly useless, but I
got them anyway. Do as you please. But don't overlook the coin or the
hard hat. They're why you're here.)
 All finished in the abode (which obviously belongs to one or more
gnomes who happen to be away at the time). Maybe they've gone fishing,
who knows? Go east twice to the crossroads. Now take the northwest exit
which leads to a mine.
 After you go northwest, you will come to a lift (which the British
insist is the correct word for an elevator). This is a little tricky, so
pay attention. A sign asks, "Are you wearing your had hat?" "Yes," you
say to no one in particular. You see a button. PUSH THE BUTTON. You hear
a click. Now you must use the time-tested command, WAIT. In fact, you
must use it several times. After about the third WAIT, the lift will
arrive. LOOK AT THE DOOR. Yes, as you figured, the door is closed.

 Well, what do you do with a lift door? You SLIDE THE DOOR OPEN, that's
what. Now you can enter the lift by going north. Inside you find a rope.
GET THE ROPE. You also find two buttons. LOOK AT THE BUTTONS. You learn
that the first button makes the lift go up if pressed. The second makes
it go down. First, SLIDE THE DOOR CLOSED; then PRESS THE SECOND BUTTON.
Click. Slowly the lift descends.
 SLIDE THE DOOR OPEN and go south. Whew! As you step from the lift, part
of the roof collapses. Fortunately, your hard hat protects you and you
escape an untimely demise. You are at a rockface, deep in a mine. There
are some lumps (of lead) here. GET THE LUMPS. The lumps steadfastly
refuse to budge. Good thing you brought your trowel, eh? GET THE LUMPS
WITH THE TROWEL. You now have the lumps and you can leave the mine the
way you came, pressing the first button in the lift to go up, sliding
the door, etc. -- boring when you know how.

 THE PAWN
  Part 3

 Once out of the lift (by going south), go southeast to the crossroads,
east to the Low Ceiling Room and east to the White Room. Now go east
again. You will find yourself in a voting booth. The graphic will show
that there are two ballot boxes, a large one if you want to vote for
Gringo Baconburger, about whom you read all there is to know in "A Tale
of Kerovnia." (You DID remember to read that, didn't you?) There's also
a small ballot box. Well, you can't cast your ballot quite yet. So
return west to the White Room and go north.
 You will be in Gringo Baconburger's office. LOOK UNDER THE RUG. You
find a safe. Well, I'll be jiggered! The safe is locked. Now just
exactly what do you suppose will open that safe? You got it! The blue
key. Now aren't you glad you left the princess to rot away in that
tower? (Oh, don't worry, she'll get out one of these days. Probably her
yucky boyfriend, Malcolm, will save her. In the meatime, you have work
to do.) OPEN THE SAFE WITH THE BLUE KEY. The blue key vanishes but the
safe is now unlocked. SEARCH THE SAFE. You find a ballot paper. GET THE
BALLOT PAPER.
 You now have the means to vote, so go back to the booth (south and
east). Type, VOTE FOR GRINGO. When asked, "How?" type, PUT THE PAPER IN
THE LARGE BOX. (For what it's worth, this action will give you 40 points
toward the grand total of 350 which you're striving for. Rescuing the
princess would have given you zilch.)

 That about does it for the tree, so you can leave by going west through
the White Room, then up twice to the Tree Trunk room. Exit the room by
going west then down. Yippee! Your faithful horsie is still here. GET ON
THE HORSE and ride east twice. Now head north and turn west onto the
grassy plain.
 On the grassy plain you will find Honest John with his cart full of
goodies. You've got the coin (plus a chit if you need it), so GET OFF
THE HORSE and BUY THE WHISKY BOTTLE AND THE BEER BOTTLE WITH THE COIN.
Honest John thanks you, and tells you it was nice doing business with
you, your exit cue, I think. Anyway, GET ON THE HORSE and go north.
 You're back in the foothills again, and you're going back into those
ominous caves, sulphur smell and all. By this time you ought to be able
to get there without my help.
 Once you get down into the small cave, GET OFF THE HORSE and go north.
Here you will find an amusing political poster, touting the merits of
Gringo Baconburger. No great significance; just amusing. You can also go
to the entrance (south from the small cave), and you will see two freely
swinging perspex doors to the south. Don't bother with them yet. You
aren't ready. Instead, go back to the small cave and head north.

 You will go through the damp passage where you see the political poster
and if you go north one more time you will come to a laboratory. Inside
the laboratory you stumble upon three alchemists. The alchemists are
hotly debating who should go outside to get their dinner as they are
scared whoever leaves will sell the secret of turning lead into gold.
Suddenly, they spot you.
 They offer to make you some gold if you give them something to eat.
GIVE THE RICE TO THE ALCHEMISTS. So far, so good. Next, they ask if you
have any lead that you wish to have turned into gold. GIVE THE LEAD TO
THE ALCHEMISTS.
 Huh? The alchemists take your lead and skedaddle. No gold. But all is
not lost. If you check, your score just went up 30 points, which ain't
all bad.
 Checking out the lab at your leisure, you look in the flasks. These
contain some liquid. Go ahead, drink it. It tastes delicious; just like
apple juice. Won't help your score or affect the game, but you were
thirsty from all this adventuring, weren't you? Better still, go
northeast into the alchemist's storeroom. Here, among all the flotsam
and jetsam, you find an aerosoul. Yep, that's the way it's spelled and
that's the way the authors intended, for reasons to be revealed. GET THE
AEROSOUL.

 You also find some tomes. You're told these are works of ancient lore
which would crumble to dust if you tried to open them without a spell.
Okay, CAST A SPELL ON THE TOMES. (Ha! You didn't even know you could do
that, did you?) Well, it works, one of the tomes opens. Reading the
tome, you learn that Kronos has made a contract with the Devil. In
return for his soul, Kronos has been given his special evil powers. Once
he expires, however, the soul of Kronos is doomed to horrendous agony
for all eternity; however, a sub-clause in the contract reveals that
Kronos can avoid this torture by exchanging three good souls for his
own.
 Once you read this, the tome crumbles to dust. You also begin to feel a
little sorry for that corpse you've been toting around on the horse you
aquired by handing Kronos' chest to the adventurer (aka, the corpse).
Oh, well, how else would you have corralled the horse? And without him,
where would you be now? Nowhere, that's where, unless being back at
square one is "somewhere."
 Well, no time for reflection. You're ready to leave the laboratory and
get on with the adventure. Go southwest from the storeroom into the lab
and exit by going northwest. Move west toward the sunlight you see
coming through a gap in the wall. You will come to a high ledge, roughly
one-third of the way up the mountain. A rickety old rope bridge, which
doesn't look too safe, leads North out over a deep ravine, hundreds of
feet down. Nothing for it but to plunge ever onward -- hopefully, not
downward. Go north.
 You're on the rope bridge which creaks and groans alarmingly. But it
manages to take your weight (just). Keep going across, north.

 Whew! Made it! You're on the other side on another high ledge. You see
exits to the northwest and to the northeast. Go northeast. You will be
in a tunnel inside the mountain. Go north into a room with freshly
papered walls. On the walls is scrawled some graffiti. READ THE
GRAFFITI. (Sigh) It says, "Do not lean on this wall." (Actually, you
don't have to do this, the graphic will tell you what the graffiti says.
It will, that is, if you have enabled the graphics mode.)
 In the freshly papered room is a cupboard. OPEN THE CUPBOARD and LOOK
IN THE CUPBOARD. Inside you see a hook. (Remember the rope you found in
the lift? Well, now's your chance to use it.) TIE THE ROPE TO THE HOOK.
Good. Now, TEAR THE PAPER WALL WITH THE TROWEL and CLIMB THROUGH THE
HOLE.

 Now, dear reader, you can go to Hell!

 No offense, that's precisely where you are going. Once through the hole
you will be on a ledge. Go down. (You're holding onto one end of the
rope, remember?) You can only go so far, though, and the rope will hold
you back. DROP THE ROPE. No damage done. Go east.
 You are now in a passage leading to some large double doors. There is a
massive brass knocker on the doors. KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER. You will get
an odd reply from the character inside, so KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER again.
Hmmm, another odd reply. KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER one more time. Still,
all you get is gibberish. Well, persistence pays (it says here) so KNOCK
WITH THE KNOCKER a fourth time. Voila! The doors finally open and there
stands a porter, guarding the entrance. If you LOOK AT THE PORTER, you
will soon see he is very drunk. You will also note that his hip flask is
almost empty.
 Now, you may think this guy is cute, but don't be deceived. If you
don't tip him, he's going to do you in, literally. He really is quite a
nasty little bugger, so GIVE THE WHISKY BOTTLE TO THE PORTER. Well, that
did it. Instead of hastening your early departure to a greater/or lesser
reward, the porter thanks you and lets you pass. Go east to the shaft
where your nose informs you that the stench of sulphur is overpowering
and the heat makes you queasy. (Ugh!) Go down.

 Once you've gone down the shaft, go north. Here is an annex, and lo and
behold! Inside is Jerry Lee Lewis, sitting at the piano and playing his
hit song, "Great Balls of Fire." You note that he looks very hot and
uncomfortable. GIVE THE BEER BOTTLE TO JERRY LEE LEWIS. My, Jerry Lee is
grateful. He thanks you (and you note your score went up again, too).
 Time for serious business. Leave the annex (south) and go east. As you
enter, the light you are carrying (the White) is reflected back from
every direction, forcing you back lest you be blinded. Gotta hide the
white. PUT THE WHITE IN THE POUCH. Go east. Nope, you're still driven
back. Ah, I know, CLOSE THE POUCH. Now you can go east then north into a
cavern.
 Oh, Lord! The cavern is the home of a mob of powerful demons. They are
desporting themselves by chewing on rotten carrion coming from headless
corpses hanging from hooks on the walls. A fridge is embedded in the
south wall near one exit. (DO NOT open the fridge or go south. The
fridge contains heads, by the way, and if you open it you will become
one of those corpses the demons are chewing so merrily upon.) Instead,
go east.

 THE PAWN
  Part 4

 You have just entered HELL!! and there sits old Lucifer himself,
enthroned high above and looking down at you with terrible fiery eyes.
 Your move: ASK THE DEVIL ABOUT KRONOS. The Devil replies that he would
make Kronos the Himmler of Hell. (Wow! This is eerie stuff, yes?) ASK
THE DEVIL ABOUT THE WRISTBAND. Now, that was a good question.
 The Devil tells you he will remove your wristband if you will bring him
the soul of no other than the magician, Kronos. To help you in this
difficult task, Old Nick gives you a fragile crystal bottle, containing
a potion. You are told you may not open the bottle. You are also told it
is time for you to leave this land of the dead and return to the land of
the living to carry out your task, "Until," the Devil adds evilly, "I
call again."

 You no sooner type GET THE POTION BOTTLE than a bolt of fire issues
from the Devil's eyes and, ZAP, you are back on the high ledge. It takes
you a moment to realize you're on the south (caves) side, and you recall
there was another entrance into the northern mountain across the rope
bridge. Before venturing across again, OPEN THE POUCH and GET THE WHITE.
Go north across the rope bridge to the high ledge. This time, take the
northwest exit.
 Oops! You have entered an immense chamber containing a glittering pile
of treasure. Atop the treasure sits an extremely ugly (and
hungry-looking) dragon. The dragon looks at you and says, "Ah, my lunch
at last." (Yep, he's hungry!)
 You must act quickly, dragon-bait, or it's curtains. Here's what to do.
SHINE WHITE AT SHADOWS. This will cause the dragon (who has poor
eyesight, by the way) to look around. He says he can't see anything so
he'll just have to eat you instead. You quickly type, POINT AT SHAPES.
Sorry about this, Bilbo Baggins fans, but the dragon spies what you're
pointing at, which turns out to be thirteen cute little hobbits, which
he promptly fries and eats. Well, it was them or you, right? And this
gives you your chance to get past the winged monstor. Go north.

 You have entered the magician's workshop. Yes sir, it's old Kronos'
hideaway, all right. What's more, Kronos is right here, staring at you.
No time (or moves) to lose. Instantly, THROW THE POTION BOTTLE AT THE
MAGICIAN. Ha! Kronos, old boy, that slowed you down! Not only does it
slow him down, but the bottle breaks and the potion sloshes all over
Kronos' face and skin. This causes him to boil and bubble away before
your very eyes. True, but how to get his bubbling remains to back to the
Devil. What's that? A light bulb over your head? You remember the
aerosoul (and now you can deduce why it's spelled that way). GET THE
AEROSOUL and PRESS THE NOZZLE.

 Good! The aerosoul quickly devours the scarred soul of the evil
magician with little resistance. (And your points are up again, too.)
Finally, there's nothing left of Kronos but a pile of his clothes on the
floor. You LOOK AT THE CLOTHES. Odd, the shirt is black with a green
design of a plant which has seven jagged edges. (Haven't we seen this
before?) You look in the pocket and there's a metal key and a wooden
key. Oh, you dunce, you're looking at your own clothes! Well, be
patient. Soon you are told that the cloak is black and adorned with
mystical symbols. The pointy hat has silver stars and moons stitched on
it. There is also a wand lying there. Obviously, these belonged to
Kronos.
 WEAR THE CLOAK AND THE POINTY HAT. GET THE WAND. Now you look exactly
like Kronos. (You will also find a top hat which you can take if you
wish. If you look inside, it contains a rabbit. There are some spare
wands lying around, too, but you don't really need them. The main thing
is to fool the dragon into thinking you're Kronos. (He doesn't see very
well, remember?) So leave the magician's workshop and head back south,
all dressed up like Kronos.
 The dragon looks you over and says, "Thanks, oh, great wizard, for
giving me those hobbits." He says he wishes he could have had that human
(gulp), too: "Hobbits aren't all that filling." Don't dally. You're home
free. Go southeast to the ledge.

 At this point I should interject that there is an alternate route from
Kronos' lab, back to Hell where you must go next. It is via Kronos'
flying stone slab, which is found parked outside to the North of the
workshop. Using it is a matter of adjusting your weight (by dropping
items) and then climbing aboard. Frankly, it was too much bother for me
so I chose the way back as described, past the dragon.
 The adventure is nearly over. You now need only retrace your steps back
into the mountain through the northeast entrance, then down the rope in
the papered room, and through the cavern where the hideous demons are
still feasting. You enter Lucifer's presence once more and SHOW THE
AEROSOUL TO THE DEVIL.

 "The Devil's eyes turn on you, showing a hint of gratitude mixed with a
patronizing condemnation of your weakness of spirit. Imperceptibly, the
silver wristband falls to the ground and melts into a blob of useless
metal in a matter of seconds. The Devil signals you to leave the
chamber, your contract fulfilled."
 That's it, kid. Don't ask any questions, just leave. (If you don't the
Devil will kill you.) First, OPEN THE POUCH AND GET THE WHITE. Then, Go
west, then, south and west to the shaft. Go up the shaft to the double
doors. No, the porter won't bother you. Go west to the ledge which is
about ten feet below the papered room.
 GET THE ROPE. (Now, this is important: Don't just type UP or you'll
die. Enter CLIMB UP THE ROPE and all will be well. You will be back in
the newly papered room (one wall of which you have thoughtfully ripped
open with your trowel), and you can leave the northern mountain by going
south across the rope bridge.

 Is that it? Well, you have 345 points and you're supposed to get 350.
Odd. Wonder what you didn't do? Well, there is something. Do you
remember those perspex doors back in the caves not far from the
Alchemist's Laboratory. Perhaps you should go there now.
 Go back into the cavern and down to the small cave deep down inside the
mountain. Once there, go south. This will take you to the narrow
corridor that gets brighter and brighter to the south, ending where it
meets the two swinging perspex doors.
 Oh, yes, I nearly forgot. You have one other chore to perform before
you tackle those doors. (And this is a real doozy, folks.) You GET THE
TROWEL (if you don't already have it in hand). Now you must (and type
this exactly as I'm writing it) PLANT THE PLANT IN THE POT WITH THE
TROWEL. The plant will seem much happier, and you should, too. Your
score just reached the magic 350!

 Now for the doors. KNOCK ON THE DOOR. A voice from within will ask if
you are wearing a wristband. Say, NO, I AM NOT WEARING THE WRISTBAND.
The doors will open and you will find yourself inside a strange room,
totally alien to the rest of the adventure. The walls floor are littered
with listing paper and a large fan blows cigarette ash onto the many
computers and peripherals that inhabit the weird abode.
 You have entered the Chamber of the Programmers, the very ones who have
created THE PAWN. One of them gives you a listing and tells you to fix
it. Then, they all troop off to the pub to celebrate your finishing the
game. LOOK AT THE LISTING. You discover it is a listing of something
called "Debugbits." It looks like it might let you wander around the
game without dying.

 Type DEBUG, and you will see the ">" prompt change to "]."
Congratulations! Now you can go anywhere you want in the game and no one
and nothing can hurt you. Waltz past the dragon. He won't care. Let go
of the rope. Big deal! Go see the Devil if you want. You are immune.
Well, what's the point? You've already finished the adventure. So why
bother? Well, it might just be fun to see if there is something you
missed or could have done better. Heck, you can go rescue the princess
if you want. Maybe King Eric will treat you a bit better if you do.
 That's THE PAWN. And if you enjoyed it as much as I did, you'll be
hoping for more from those weary programmers who so unceremoniously left
you in the lurch to hoist one at the pub. Maybe if you hurry, you can
even catch them there. But I doubt if they'll buy!